Doc Searls on Net Neutrality:

The problem is, I like Sirius. I like the fact that I can hear Steve Gillmor, yours truly and other people I know on Sirius 102, right above Howard 100 and 101, where I get to enjoy Howard Stern, Scotty Ferrall and other exiles from terrestrial radio, where they were fined and censored off the air by the FCC, which found them "indecent".

Sirius, however, is a silo. It's private. It's not public. It's spaces are finite, but they're far more wide-open that the public airwaves have been ever since Congress, the Supreme Court and the FCC all agreed, long ago, that the First Amendment doesn't apply there . It's just the container cargo we call "content" (check the file name in the URL at the last link) and it can be regulated and controlled just like we do with trucking.

See, the private zones are relatively free, while the public ones are not. And private zones are the ones the carriers want clearance to create.

He makes the point about Sirius, which I think is crucial: The "public utilities" we have in the "content" area are heavily regulated, and free speech on those systems is limited (in multiple ways). If we regulate the net in the name of "neutrality", we'll end up with a new FCC for the net (or the existing one with new ground to regulate).

Thanks, but no thanks